Metal On Metal
by Neon Hades
Summary: Disaster looms for the Fleetway Freedom Fighters as Silver Sonic Mk III, the supercharged result of Tails' obsessive tinkering, is brought back from the ashes with a savage vendetta to settle. But does it lie with Sonic, or something worse....
1. Old Toys

_**The story thus far……**_

_In 'Child Of Madness', Porker Lewis and Knuckles, whilst looting one of Robotnik's abandoned bases under the Emerald Hill Zone, accidentally stumbled across and re-activated a long-dormant android monstrosity known as Cryax, a hitherto unknown creation of Doctor Robotnik's and, apparently, the intended successor to Robotnik's legacy as dictator of Mobius.. The robot soon proved itself to be exceptionally strong, brutally overpowering both Knuckles and later Sonic in hand-to-hand combat and coming extremely close to killing both of them, during which times he also revealed himself to be possessed of unusual traits for a supposedly lifeless machine, including a liking for poetry and a savage, macabre sense of humour. By cooperating as a unit with Tails, the heroes eventually managed to wear the psychotic machine down, with Cryax himself apparently being weakened by a degenerating mental condition and an onset of primal, animalistic rage. By the time Amy Rose arrived on the scene to aid the fighters, Cryax was himself badly wounded, and knew he needed to retreat. Escaping a last minute ditch effort by Sonic to end the fight, Cryax used the energy blasters on his wrists to collapse the cave roof and escape._

_While regrouping at the Emerald Hill Control Centre, Sonic and his team learned that Cryax is powered by experimental nano-technology, microscopic robots riddling his structure that repair battle damage, record data on enemy fighting tactics and augment his strength, speed and endurance to their impossible levels. Tails theorized that, with so many individual minds evolving all over his body, Cryax might soon become paralysed by his own body, or some other unforeseen event may occur. In any case, the Freedom Fighters realised they had a new enemy on their hands, and got to work immediately searching for the fugitive. Knuckles also began intensive combat training in preparation for his next foray against Cryax, and advised a flippant Sonic to do the same. Meanwhile, Cryax eventually lost the battle for his sanity while in hiding underground, and unable to hold his conflicting mind and body together he eventually went mad. He now adopted a new, clear-cut purpose. Namely, the elimination of all life on Planet Mobius and beyond…._

_Now read on….._

**Old Toys**

The specimen on the operating table, insofar as was possible for something that had never technically been alive, was most definitely dead.

It glared up from its rigid position under the operating lights through lenses of deadened emerald, covered in a film of dust, scratches and fingerprints. The metal of its skin was cracked and rusting, heavily pitted with furrows and dents along the ridge of its distinctive, spiked skull. Its muzzle bore no opening for a mouth, just a series of screws and bolts that locked its face into place against a robotic skeleton. And this long forgotten freak of engineering was currently being subjected to the gaze of both an eagerly expectant two-tailed fox and a thoroughly unimpressed blue hedgehog.

"So, I'm meant to be jumping for joy right about now, is that it?"

Tails groaned inwardly; he had guessed that Sonic would not be thrilled to come face to face with his new science project.

"I admit, it isn't exactly friendly…"

"Tell me about it….."

Sonic examined the disused badnik on Tails' workbench along the bridge of his nose, practically radiating distaste. The creature he was currently giving a good deal of his attention to was something just out of the shallow minnow pool where most of Robotnik's spent terrors were content to wallow, a fraction of a degree more powerful than the Spin-Attack fodder that he had spent his heroic career dispatching, and even then it had not been much of a challenge. But it was the intervening years since that first meeting, and the near apocalyptic events that accompanied it, were what sent spears of cold disgust driving into his bowels.

The Silver Sonic. Robitnik's first attempt at creating a robotic replica of his arch-nemesis, a machine that could compete on equal terms with the faster-than-sound hedgehog. When Sonic had first encountered it, it had been the guardian of the Death Egg, but it had been no obstacle to Sonic at that stage. It had been slow, clumsy and heavily built, the polar opposite of the lightning-quick opponent it was trying to bring down. Silver Sonic, at least the Mk I, had been a miserable failure on Robotnik's part, but it hadn't stopped him pursuing the design. Silver himself had been rebuilt at a much later date, and once again the Mk II, the model which Sonic now recognised as the specimen before him, had been set the task of defending the Death Egg II from the combined assault of Sonic and Knuckles on the Floating Island. It had put up a much tougher fight at that stage, but in the end it had still been no match for the power of Super Sonic. No, Silver wasn't what bothered Sonic. Silver had spawned a cousin in the long line of badniks, a deadly relative in the legacy of Sonic replicas. Metallix, the Metal Sonic. That demonic creature had been far more dangerous than Silver had ever been; from that initial duel to the death on the Miracle Planet, right up to the rise of the Brotherhood, and the events that had led to Sonic brawling for his life, hopping between timelines, against an army of sociopathic robotic clones as he attempted to break their grip on Mobius. Even in the triumphant moment he had finally brought the Alpha Device down and seen greenery and life creep back once more into dominance of their hideously crafted base of operations, the ordeal had been far from over. Images still flashed backwards and forwards across his fervent dreams of a second incarnation of the armoured titan, in the shape of Knuckles, hammering him effortlessly into submission in the heat of a Drakon battle arena.

To have this world-defeating, recurring nightmare suddenly launched back to the surface in the form of this lifeless hulk was, to say the least, a jarring experience. And Sonic wasn't about to take it lying down.

"So remind me again," he persisted, rounding on Tails, "why exactly do we continue to crawl through Robotnik's rubbish just for the sake of finding you something to tinker with?"

Tails frowned and straightened a pair of safety goggles recently strapped to his head.

"Sonic, why do you always assume that something will go horribly wrong whenever we start dealing with machines? How do you know that the reverse engineering project I have planned for this guy isn't going to be a complete success?"

"Experience tells me otherwise," Sonic drawled, "besides which I really don't see what an old Silver Sonic is going to be able to do to help us. I licked that pile of scrap no problem the last time we fought, so if you're looking for something to use against Cryax…"

"As a matter of fact, this guy may just be the solution we're looking for," Tails proclaimed, slapping the metal head of the prone robot with vigour, "I mean, with some minor adjustments I might just be able to re-program it to fight on our side, maybe even start mass-producing it. Who knows, in a couple of months these things might even replace policemen…"

Sonic shook his head, pivoting on one heel. His part in this exchange was over.

"Somehow Tails, the idea of an army of Robotnik's old toys trooping about all over Mobius doesn't really do wonders for my sense of optimism. Call me crazy, but perhaps spending half your life smacking the living daylights out of these creeps does that to you. Now, I need some air…."

Tails watched Sonic go with a familiar pang of frustration, making him unconsciously narrow his eyes and clench his fists. For all the great qualities Sonic had as a mentor, and for all the times they had fought together, Sonic could still be one of the most persistent annoyances in Tails' life. On rare occasions, it seemed that everything about him was something that made Tails angry; his condescension, his dismissivness, his arrogance…. Or was all of this simply Sonic's safeguard? Did he harbour some kind of natural distrust of Robotnik's creations, whoever was helming them? Was all of his apparent loathing of Tails' new subject, the Silver Sonic, just one facet of his hatred for all of Robotnik's legacy? Tails allowed himself to relax, and fastened the goggles around his head into a tighter position. He reached out for the welding torch to his left and focussed on the machine's chest piece, the doorway into its inner workings. He could only gain Sonic's approval, he realised, if Sonic could see that the machine was harmless. And it would only be harmless once Tails had finished with it….

As Sonic traipsed back down the corridors, the yearning for fresh air stealing back over him, he turned his glance once again on the storeroom. It was on this route, he remembered, that he had encountered Knuckles and his outrageous training regime. He smiled wryly at the memory of Knuckles tearing his body to pieces under his mind's ruthless tuition, of him vainly swapping blows with empty air…. He wondered as he neared the room if Knuckles had kept up with the schedule he had set himself. It would certainly help his cause, the near-militaristic patrol of sniggers and sneers, if Knuckles would persist in giving him such ample ammunition. With this in mind, he approached the storeroom door and stretched out one hand to the touch-pad that would open it….

Sonic froze briefly as an unfamiliar sound rang across the busy silence of the Control Tower. The sound of Knuckles' furious sparring was still there; the thin, razor-edged whine of his fists tearing the air apart, and the brisk series of grunts and gasps as he pushed his body closer and closer to breaking point. But now the rising crescendo of violence had an undercurrent. An accompaniment. Sonic listened more closely, setting his ears to the cold metal. Against the background of Knuckles' loudening cries, he could hear his blows rebounding and striking occasionally as they swept through the air. They were hitting flesh, landing against an organic opponent. So he wasn't fighting against a ghost this time. And as he listened more, Sonic could make out the patter of a second set of footsteps, lighter and quicker than Knuckles' stony tread. Quicker, higher breaths ran concurrent with the echidna's guttural roars. The emerging voice of this enemy, he also had to admit, sounded distinctly…. Feminine?

Deciding to confirm his suspicions, Sonic leant against the pad and let the doors sweep aside. The space inside the room leapt out at him with a spatial aggression, swimming and blurring with almighty speed before his eyes. But Sonic's eyes were used to following things that moved at speed. Separating out the whirl of colour and sound that the match had become, he instantly recognised Knuckles, lunging forward with a straight-arm barge, teeth bared like a hunting predator, eyes blazing with bloodlust. Dodging the strike, white cotton T-shirt billowing in the wind of her own passage, was Amy.

That in itself, the sight of two of his best friends apparently at each others' throats, was enough to stall Sonic for a moment. What happened next pretty much put the nail in the coffin, as Amy flipped nimbly over Knuckles' shoulder, escaping the sweep of his foot on the counter-strike, and buried her heel in his collarbone. The echidna howled and flew to the floor, his face a mask of agony as he clutched at the spot where Amy's trainer had struck. It was enough to loosen Sonic's tongue at last, to see Amy poised over her sparring partner for the next blow.

"Having fun kids?"

Knuckles craned his neck to grimace in Sonic's direction.

"Never better, as it happens."

"Good. Hate to think you were busting your bodies up in here and not enjoying yourselves."

Amy smiled wryly and shook her head.

"It's better than you might imagine Sonic," she said, gently massaging her shoulders and upper-body as she spoke, "it really gets the blood flowing."

"Yeah, looks pretty invigorating," Sonic drawled, "just a shame poor Knux here can't seem to get a punch in edgeways."

By now, Knuckles had picked himself back to his feet, and shot a venomous glance at his smirking rival.

"You saying something about my technique?"

Sonic couldn't help but chuckle.

"Knuckles, this is getting ridiculous. I mean, maybe if it was me fighting you then we'd expect you to lose, but Amy? Man, you need this practice more than I thought!"

Now it was Amy's turn to look daggers. Warmth gradually crept out of her face as she settled a fighter's gaze on Sonic, both fists clenching as she ran her fingers over the bruises on her knuckles.

"You don't think I can fight Sonic? Is that what you're saying?"

Aware that he might have let his tongue run away with him, Sonic tried to keep up his shield of bravado.

"Well, no offence intended Amy. I know you're a crack-shot with that crossbow…."

"… but one-on-one I don't stand a chance, right?"

Momentarily stalled by the rising coldness in Amy's voice, Sonic's smile faded. Knuckles allowed himself the pleasure of one of his fang-toothed grins.

"I think you might be giving Amy too little credit Sonic. I've been sparring with her for the last hour straight, and she isn't to be taken lightly."

"An hour?" Sonic scoffed, "I can make laps of the whole planet without breaking a sweat. Still, I'm surprised you managed that much Knuckles. Congratulations, maybe you'll actually be ready to go toe-to-toe with me someday."

"I don't know about Knuckles," Amy cut in, the poison in her voice tangible, "but I reckon I could give you a run for your money. What do you say Sonic; you could handle little-old-me in a bit of hand to hand, right?"

Sonic raised his eyebrow as he watched Amy settle into a combat stance, her muscles stiffening under her skin.

"You serious?"

Amy smiled back, sensing the tremble in Sonic's armour.

"You scared?"

That settled it for Sonic; an assault on his pride was not something that would go unpunished. But still, he reminded himself, it is only Amy. How hard can it be? He relaxed his own muscles and focussed, energy pulsing back to life in his body.

"Alright, you win. Let's dance."

"Amen. I promise I won't be too hard on you."

Sonic shot off another cocky smile as Amy began to stalk around him. This was going to be a short fight, he knew that. Amy's manner, her sheer seriousness, unnerved him slightly, but he knew his own strength. Meanwhile, Knuckles settled back against a wall and relaxed, trying to keep his guffaws of mirth to himself. Sonic really had no idea what fury he had let himself in for. But it would do the arrogant little runt some spiritual good to find out. Knuckles almost felt sorry for his long-time ally as he swooped in for the opening punch.

Almost, but not quite.


	2. Dancing Lessons

**Dancing Lessons**

It was Sonic who made the opening gambit, a diving straight-arm punch that would have taken Amy on her torso. He hadn't put his heart, or much of his body, into the strike. But he wasn't playing at the top of his game, he knew that. Nor did he intend to. There was no way he would attack Amy with the same fury he had shown in the past to foes like Metallix or Chaos. Just some light, playful punches will do the trick, he told himself.

A heartbeat later, he was already regretting it.

Amy dipped her shoulder to avoid the punch, before bringing her elbow up in a sweep that caught Sonic cleanly on the jaw. The pounding rattled through Sonic's skull, waves of shock and disbelief drowning out the ache. Spots pinwheeled in front of his eyes, in venomous and acidic colours. As Sonic finally came to his senses, the world settling back into stunned focus, he could feel the embarrassment starting to burn off his skin. Through the haze, he caught a glimpse of Amy. She was still tense, her arm poised to fend off another blow. The unforgiving, stone-hard glint in her eyes, flashing through her loose-hanging locks, told their own story. She wasn't going to play with Sonic. Doubtless his remarks from minutes earlier had not ceased to rankle in the wounds. Sonic shoved the intruding thoughts to one side, and forced a rigid smirk. He wasn't beyond facing a genuine challenge. He swept back in, attempting a spinning punch-kick combo. The whirlwind attack was rushed and sloppy, and it showed. Amy leapt cleanly out of the way, falling heavily onto her back foot, before bringing her free leg up in a jerk that Sonic only just managed to dodge. In a burst of panicked energy, terror of losing his game suddenly seizing him, Sonic blasted forward in a blaze of barrelling punches, stabbing at the air around his target's head, hoping that somewhere in the hailing confusion he would meet yielding flesh. All he got, besides vacant air, was the muscle and bone of Amy's arms as she repulsed the strikes. With a shrill gasp of effort, Amy tore past the shower of blows and delivered a fist like a bullet to Sonic's stomach. With the bile and spit rising in a horror-struck torrent from his throat, Sonic found himself staggering back against the bone of Amy's hand, struggling to haul the evicted air back into his protesting lungs. He felt a thin bead of sweat trickle down from somewhere on his scalp.

He was sweating, he thought, and the fight hasn't even started yet. As he fought to reclaim his breath, he saw Amy drop her guard for a fraction of a second, relax her muscles, and allow the first hints of a grin to steal over her muzzle.

"Try again."

Now Sonic was bearing his teeth in rising rage, blood surging in a solid, burning torrent back into his muscles. His old pride was diminishing; he wasn't going to let Amy toy with him further. It was time to show why he was Mobius' hero. Shaking away the shock and fatigue of Amy's punch, he launched himself forward headfirst, fists forward. Sure enough, Amy parried the blows and countered with an upward kick, but now Sonic's reflexes were operating on top form again. He flipped upwards, out of harm's way, and continued to rain kicks against the protesting shield of Amy's arms. He felt his frustration grow with every strike of his feet against her unyielding body. She wasn't giving easily. He swept around an uppercut that would have taken him in the stomach and fell to the floor again, bringing one heel down in a motion designed to carve cleanly into Amy's head. Brutal it might be, he thought, but it should get the point across….

Not so. He felt Amy's hand close around his ankle first, and then the sharp twist, followed by the brief, synapse-shredding agony of bone wrenching against bone.

From sheer blind panic, struggling with both feet like a dervish, Sonic was able to free himself from Amy's terrifying hold. He crashed gracelessly back to the ground, shooting pains rattling up and down his left leg from the epicentre of her assault, and brought his gaze back to Amy. He wasn't going to give her time to smile, or to quip, to think herself secure…. Not again. The next forward dash was accompanied by his throaty scream of aggression, one foot thrust out. Amy dodged again, but Sonic had counted on it this time. His momentum took him all the way to the opposite wall and, with both his feet now blazing with motion underneath him, straight up it. With the outside world now becoming a mere smear against his own eyes, Sonic kicked nimbly off the surface and curled in mid air, rending the waiting space apart as he dived in straight for Amy, charging a Super Spin Attack. If this didn't knock the sense from her….

It didn't. Sonic felt the floor of the room, metal and bolts together, buckle and tear under the earth-shattering power of his attack, but knew that Amy had dodged him. And in the intervening second it would have taken for him to react, to leap aside, to ready himself for the next counter-blow, he felt the punishing impact of Amy's foot against his spine. He yelped, eyes watering, and pitched forward, the world slopping back into focus and mingling with his own pain. Either the world had suddenly ground to a halt, or he had. Because he wasn't moving. And neither was anything else.

Knuckles watched patiently from his position against the wall, and grimaced as Sonic's shuddering body hit the floor. Even he hadn't counted on the venom, the practised and precise lethality with which Amy planted her blows. It was just slightly disturbing, seeing her relentlessly pound Sonic's unprepared, overconfident flesh into humiliating submission. But the sheer magnitude of Sonic's offhand smugness before this whole ordeal had started was enough to convince Knuckles that this was a spectacle worth relishing. He couldn't help but nod in admiration as Amy relaxed just a few degrees, her shoulders dropping, allowing her energy to be replenished. This fight was going to get very nasty very quickly, he thought, massaging the still stinging spot on his collarbone where Amy's heel had landed just minutes before. Amy was more than ready to provide Sonic with a worthy fight, and with his pride on the line he might just be persuaded to kick his own incredible skills into high gear. This could get interesting….

With feeling at last beginning to snail back into his limbs from the neck down, Sonic shuddered and heaved himself back to his feet. He turned a burning, spite-filled gaze upon Amy, who looked, much to his rising disgust, like she was having the time of her life. Her body remained in perfect poise, ready to fend off, or launch, another blazing assault. But what truly infuriated Sonic was how she seemed to be able to accomplish all of this without so much as breaking a sweat, or denting her own pride. Sonic brought his fists back to his sides, trying to drag energy out of the very air to replace his draining reserves, and forced a grin to crawl back across his bruised muzzle.

"Okay, so you're pretty good at running away from my fists Amy. But then, haven't you been doing that for the last few years anyway?"

Amy remained unfazed.

"Big talk for someone who's getting your kind of beating Sonic. Land a punch on me first, then I might listen."

"You only had to ask…."

The sheer surge of energy accompanying Sonic's re-entry to the fight was almost enough to throw Amy off her feet on its own. Through a haze of his own fury, Sonic saw his fist drive with hammer-like force against… Amy's upper arm. Sonic felt her bone and flesh shudder under the sheer driving weight of the blow, but other than that she stood totally immovable. Another sweeping punch, but this time Sonic's reflexes were back on top form. He was ready to fight Amy like he would have fought thousands of badniks before now. His knee flew up with a force that barely held his bones together, snapping against Amy's blocking arm, followed by the blur of his second and third attempts. But every attack was repulsed, swept aside with a flick of Amy's wrists as her hands batted the blows away. Sonic allowed himself a moment to rest, sliding gracefully away from Amy's stony defence to gather himself. He was getting nowhere at present. He needed to play for time, asses Amy's new armour, try to find a weakness…

"Look, if you want me to go easier on you Sonic…."

"Won't be necessary Amy," Sonic spat, halting Amy's rising tide of smugness with vicious force, "I was ready for some proper exercise anyway. I would like to know though, where did you learn all those new dance moves from? I never penned Knuckles here as a choreographer."

Ignoring Knuckles' indignant glare, Amy simply grinned back and flexed her muscles. Sonic could almost feel the blood flowing through them, driving fresh energy into a barely fatigued body.

"How do you know I'm not just a natural fighter?"

"Because I know you too well. You didn't have that kind of technique last time I saw you brawling."

Amy narrowed her gaze, the faintest hint of mirth creeping into her voice.

"Observant. Okay," she drawled, "so I did take a few lessons. From the very best, in fact. I did some travelling in my time Sonic, and I've seen places where you'd barely notice at the speed you tear around. I fact, the Hill-Top Zone was a particular attraction to me. The mountains around there are good hiking territory. But they also make good training grounds for the tribes that live there, nomads that have dedicated themselves to the art of combat. It looked like a good lark, so I thought I'd take some basic lessons. Ko-bah, Sonic. Ring any bells?"

This remark seemed to trigger a reaction at last from Knuckles, who inclined his head to the banter with a raised eyebrow.

"Ko-bah?" Knuckles growled, "I've heard of that style of fighting, straight from the Hill-Top nomads. The Dance of Blood, or something similar… supposed to train a fighter to trust their reflexes, move with instinct, enhance their bodily speed to such a degree that they can kill a grown man in the dark before their heart even has a chance to beat. Sounded pretty deadly to me…." Knuckles shrugged and gave a flex of his enormous shoulders, "not for me though. I could never turn a good brawl into a ballet. I prefer to fight, not dance."

"Served me well nonetheless, Knuckles," Amy explained, re-stretching some of the muscles in her shoulders and upper body, "it taught me how to move with the kind of speed that even Sonic would be proud of. And furthermore," she added, noting with a kind of piteous condescension how Sonic was still shuddering trying to draw breath, "I've learned to keep that kind of power under tight control. I have the necessary discipline and muscularity now to fight past an army without tiring myself. Which looks like more than we can say for poor Sonic here, eh?"

In spite of himself, Sonic couldn't help but grin. He fought back the overpowering urge to be impressed by Amy's newfound ability and instead readied himself for his re-entrance. His stalling seemed to have done the trick; his muscles had healed, the pain in them receding thanks to his own exceptional stamina. He wasn't going to pull any punches this time…. Amy had better be ready to see how the Dance of Blood held up in a real match….

Several universes away, Tails had finally gained access to the armoured interior of the prone Silver Sonic. Before him lay a tangled jungle of wires, dials and long-dead bulbs and diodes, choking and overrunning the cold hollows in the machine's chest cavity. In his own wonder at the creature's workings, Tails' performance as a mechanic had shot up several notches in the last five minutes, adrenalin and excitement fuelling his own expertise as he tenderly picked away at the machine's delicate inner workings. He would prove it, he told himself, he would prove that he could do good with one of Robotnik's old war machines. Sonic and the others could have had little idea of the miracles that could be worked with the idea that they had scorned. He wiped a developing bead of sweat off his brow with the back of his wrist and set back to work, head bent low to inspect the more intricate details of his work. Silver's inner motors, the devices that would have provided power to his torso and arms, were now visible under a forest of cords and pumps. Tails forced a held breath; the sheer power some of these specifications revealed was insane…. Nearly 500 bhp, arms that could grip with enough force to crush concrete, bound up in nearly 5 inches of steel armour. He adjusted the head on his screw-driver gently probing further into the gloom, searching for some other clue….

Knuckles was only just able to duck as Amy's foot flew past his shoulder and smashed into the metalwork, where just a nanosecond earlier Sonic had been batting away her straight-arm punches. The flash of blue streaks in the air overhead signalled his presence, and fists and feet darted down in a veritable hurricane from above. He could see Amy sweating now, eyes narrowed, really struggling to keep her energy and concentration up in the face of Sonic's renewed attack. A roundhouse kick swept through the air, aiming for Sonic's stomach, but he caught it with both open palms and flung it ungraciously aside, sending Amy tripping and stumbling away. With a guttural roar, Sonic threw himself at her, fist-first, his needle-sharp blow cutting just over her head as she dodged sluggishly. And then, summoning up a monumental drive, he swept both feet underneath her body, sending the pink hedgehog pitching forward, face hurtling to the floor. Even Knuckles was surprised at the speed of her recovery, catching herself on both hands before she hit the floor and hastily righting herself to avoid Sonic's incoming heel. Now both fighters were truly giving it their all… Knuckles was just starting to get nervous…..

Tails didn't read the signs at first. The kraken-like groan of long-unused metal joints creaking into life. The throaty hum of primal engines whirring under his hands. What did finally jolt him back out of his epic dream, and with horrifying suddenness, was the sudden, piercing flash of emerald light, the terrible signal of two vivid, piercing eyes flashing back into being after years of darkness. Then, before he could even scream, icy fingers, their grip tight enough to crush granite to powder, were around his throat.

Amy and Sonic were now only barely visible, a series of randomly flashing pink and blue blurs as one warrior tried frantically, viciously, to make some dent in their opponent's armour. In his rage, Sonic's sheer relentless force was starting to chip away at Amy's disciplined defence, but her stamina and control were still giving her some edge. A crashing thud signalled Amy's block, Sonic's driving knee halting just inches from her stomach, but he spun furiously out of the way of her counter blow, now only marginally still aware of the outside world. His entire existence had evaporated, leaving only the glowing, white-hot point of battle, the leering face of his opponent, the furious urge to win.

"Done yet, Amy?"

"You can't touch me…."

"Getting sloppy!"

The banter came ever now and again as harsh, feral barks, the two fighters now focussing all of the energy they would have used for speech into their fighting technique. The crescendo of bodies and blows was almost audible, the angry howling of a phantom presence apparently entering the world through the sheer rage of the two combatants. Fists and feet bounced and crashed against each other, bodies hammered into bone. Knuckles was amazed that no fighter still had a clear advantage in this madhouse of whirling punches and kicks. Elbows met with a thunderous crash, both fighters anticipating a block, their growling masks forced so close together that their hot breath was in each other's face, their animal eyes staring into one another's merciless depths.

And then, without warning, the world outside exploded in again.

A monumental crash from somewhere outside the storeroom was the tonic that finally jolted Sonic and Amy out of their battle. Now shuddering for breath, bodies pressed nearly to breaking point after their epic bout, they turned their wearied, blunted senses to the closed door. Some almighty noise, not unlike the breaking of bones or the pounding of flesh, had become increasingly audible outside. Amy inched towards the door, noting nervously that the thuds and crashes were growing louder, more chaotic. Sonic massaged a bruised head, trying to recollect his thoughts. It sounded like there was a massive struggle going on out there, in the private world of the Control Tower….. but it couldn't be…. Surely not…..

"Tails? Is that…."

Amy didn't get a chance to even open the door. Tails, conveniently enough, obliged for her. His tiny, furry body rocketed cleanly though the door, ripping it right off its sturdy hinges, and thundered into the opposite wall. The metal buckled underneath his screaming, agonised form, writhing where he was pinned, before the horror-struck gaze of the Freedom Fighters. Titanic fingers on a massive metallic had were wound like pythons around the fox's throat, forcing harsh, strangled croaks out of his crumpling windpipe. Sonic, barely able to comprehend this intrustion in his combat-fatigued mind, slowly brought his fearful gaze from Tails' battered form, down to the hand holding his throat. The sturdy wrist. And then along the long fibres of a telescopic arm that extended all the way out the door, back down the corridor, and towards the hulking visage of a newly revived nightmare….


	3. The Mark III

**The Mark III**

He had been waiting for it, he had even in some odd way expected it. But staring down the corridor, seeing for himself the savage, inhuman presence of that unholy creation once more, Sonic could not help but feel rocked to his trembling core, his bruised body almost wilting under the demonic gaze of those emerald beams.

Silver Sonic, the specimen that Tails had been working on in the laboratory until moments ago, was stood rigidly to attention at the end of the hall, its massive frame virtually filling the doorway that it had torn away in its escape. Its chest cavity, recently opened, was still leaking wires and pulsing neon lights and diodes blinked and clicked visibly from within it. Surgically accurate cut marks and rivet holes marked where Tails had been examining him, up to that point. But now the specimen that he had chosen for his next project had horrifyingly, nightmarishly, re-activated itself. And contrary to what Tails had assumed, its old programming was apparently very much intact. As Sonic's gaze roved over that massive, sculpted body, nearly twice the size and build of Sonic himself, and took in the rigid, hostile crown of thorns and spikes that lined its giant body, he knew that Tails had tried in vain to re-engineer this beast. From the circuits up, from his barrel chest to his pillar-like legs to his muscular arms, he had been designed for just one, continuing purpose. A purpose that now blazed out at the world through the angry flare of those cold green eyes. The destruction of the Freedom Fighters.

Knuckles and Amy had turned their attention to Tails himself, still struggling feebly to free his throat from Silver's titanic grip. His efforts were becoming visibly weaker, his breath coming in wheezing, desperate gasps as his muscles and brain were starved of oxygen. Sonic swore he could almost see those murderous eyes glow brighter as Silver's hand tightened its grip on Tail's neck. The towering machine took in its surroundings, noting with practised efficiency the new targets now lined up conveniently for it at the far end of the corridor. The fox could wait, he decided, swiftly running over the statistics and power of his new opponents. He was a minnow by the standards of the other Freedom Fighters, and it made sense to deal with the more immediate threats first. With a casual flick of its wrist, it released the broken fox, heaping him against the dented wall, and its hand retracted back to the telescopic socket at the end of its arm, resuming its normal length. Amy was at Tails' side in an instant, her hands rushing to steam a fresh flow of blood from a cut over her friend's eye.

"Tails! Tails, can you hear me?"

Tails could only groan in answer, his glazed eyes pleasing for help from where he lay.

"That thing…. Looks too familiar to me," Knuckles growled, clenching both fists in anticipation, "I've seen that creature before… on the Floating Island…."

"Silver Sonic. I knew this would happen…"

Sonic cursed aloud as the metallic demon turned its stolid gaze on him. He could almost feel the power surging back to life under its shell, bursting for another round of carnage.

Silver himself made the first move, striking while he had his prey cornered. His course of action was decided in a heartbeat. Sonic watched as the beast raised one arm, its fingers locked together and one hand pointing directly at them. A faint yellow glow was gathering on the tips of each stubby finger.

"Get out of the way!"

Sonic saw the sparks in time, and drove his incredible reflexes into action again. He rolled deftly to the side as the first volley of golden energy came barrelling into the room, wailing and cracking as they leapt in sporadic blasts from Silver's hands. Amy ducked as the blasts whistled into the wall over her head, shielding the stunned Tails with her arms. Locked behind the relative cover of the door, Sonic and Knuckles exchanged brief, stony glares. In the light of the blasts, Knuckles could still see the recent scrapes and bruises that Sonic had taken while sparring with Amy. Now confronted with a true enemy, that exhaustion could well make this battle much harder to win.

"This is bad, Sonic. I remember the last time we fought this thing…"

"We've come a long way since then, Knuckles." Sonic snarled, grinning in spite of himself, "I've improved a lot since I fought that creep. Let's see how well he's aged, shall we?"

Knuckles couldn't help but grin in sympathy. For all their rivalry, the will of two warriors forced together in combat was somehow all the more potent given that neither of them got on that well.

"I can't get past those blasts Sonic. If he stops firing, I might get close enough for a punch. That should silence him."

"On it."

The spot where Sonic stood was vacant just seconds later. Knuckles felt the wind of his own passage blast down the corridor, and readied himself for his onw assault. Outside, Silver's precise, mechanical optical aids had picked out the blue glimmer of Sonic's advance, and he was now directing his relentless blasts in whatever direction Sonic was coming from at that moment. But even in his crippled state, Sonic was easily out-manoeuvring the lumbering robot, skipping nimbly between the blasts with a practised, confident ease.

"Too slow, rusty!"

Without giving his opponent time to think, Sonic was now vaulting over the robot's head, bringing one foot down to glance off the machine's steel skull. He laughed as a metal fist whirled through the air past him, and fell back to the floor, still taunting his foe. Silver Sonic pivoted on one foot, brining his mammoth body to face the retreating blur of Sonic. His number one priority was currently running circles around him, and this balance needed to be redressed sharply. He was now totally focussed on his main target.

Consequently, he was totally unprepared for the rock-blasting impact of Knuckle's fist pounding against the side of his face. The robot's receptors practically exploded with the howling impact of Knuckles' blow mingled with the bestial roar of the echidna himself. Like a mountain ripped from the roots, Silver sailed cleanly off his feet and tumbled through the air, crashing in a spectacular jumble into the tangle of equipment and shredded metal, dust and mortar blooming into life around the machine's flailing body. Knuckles watched the sinking hulk with a spreading grin, wiping a winding trickle of sweat from the side of his face. A genuine victory in one shot, no matter how much personal pride you had as a warrior, never failed to get the blood flowing. And after watching Sonic and Amy trade punches for the past 10 minutes, he was in a mood to let off some steam.

He was going to have plenty of opportunities then, he thought, as seconds later the piles of debris shifted angrily, and then skittered aside as a towering blue body hauled itself coolly out of the wreckage, shook its shoulders to dislodge the last dregs of debris clinging to its gigantic body, and turned its head in Knuckles' direction.

Briefly noting the wires and other assorted innards tumbling out of the open hole in his chest, Silver gingerly took a clutch of coils in one huge hand and stowed them safely back inside. Then, as he closed the hatch of his stomach safely shut, the punishing, bullet-like impact of an attack was on him again, this time a well-aimed Super Spin Attack that took him at the base of the neck, sending him reeling into the wall and at the mercy of a flurry of blows from Sonic. He cackled as the punches and kicks tore home, smashing against the robot's skull.

"Useless then, useless now…." A swift kick to the temple served as punctuation as Sonic spun away to re-gather himself, "Doesn't Robotnik _ever _learn?"

Silver creaked where he stood, momentarily stalled by the ferocity of Sonic's rage. But then, as much to Sonic's surprise as anyone else's, the machine regained its posture, twitching briefly at its joints, and then thrust out one hand and sent a glimmering ball of energy hurtling in Sonic's direction. He dodged easily, framed by a billowing flower of flame that erupted from the far wall, but it put him on guard all the same. Silver seemed to have considerably more will to fight in him than during their last encounter.

"Better. But still rubbish!"

Cue for another blaze of fists and feet. Silver was still taking the brunt of them, but Sonic could see past the blur of his own movement to the attempts at blocks and counters that the robot was trying to summon. He would need to end this fast before anything surprised him. He vaulted once more over his opponent's head, trying to plant another punch in an unprotected spot…. And then felt the breath forcibly eject itself from his lungs as a cold, stone-hard fist caught him across the back of the skull, and sent him spinning into submission. More acrid spots were dancing in front of him, stinging needles of ache once again shooting up and down his skeleton, and he realised, as the shadows crept into being around him, that the unthinkable had happened. Silver had actually landed a punch. And it had hurt.

Once again, Silver's one-track mind had left it vulnerable. Knuckles wasn't about to let this fight drag now that he had seen what he was up against. He tore mercilessly back into the fray and buried a hail of blows against Silver's sturdy body. He bellowed as his final, skull-cracking straight arm cannoned into the robot's chin. Its head snapped backwards to almost 90 degrees, both its hands twitching in a rictus of tearing sensors and cords. Knuckles grinned, feeling the life pulsing under Silver's skin die beneath his fist, the emerald light of its eyes winking off his fanged teeth.

The life didn't die for long. Knuckles' triumphant grin faded as he felt the machine's neck muscles strain against his own, pressing away his hand as its head inched back into its correct position.

And then, absorbed in his own bewilderment, Knuckles felt the retaliation before he saw it. A feeling like an express-train colliding with his stomach, the sensation of all his blood rushing in an acidic wave up through his chest, and then Silver was just a shrinking blur as he was swept away, impaled on the sole of one of the robot's boots. So, Silver had been fitted with extendable legs as well as arms…. The telescopic appendage shot like a bullet from its casing and buried the agonised echidna in the opposite wall, nearly punching a hole cleanly through the polished metal. With vomit rising past his broken bones, Knuckles felt himself being pulled back the other way as Silver's leg retracted. He saw through his sweat-blinded vision the robot conjuring a small ball of fiery heat between his fingertips, his hand drawn back as if for a punch... and a second later he was on it, Silver bringing one hand up underneath Knuckles' stomach in a sweeping motion that carved cleanly into his gut, releasing with it an energy blast that pummelled through his body like a torrent of molten iron. The blast carried his howling, charred body through the air, and the wound was still smoking as he crashed back down to earth, gasped as the last of his breath left him, and then twitched into silence.

If he was not dead, Silver knew, then he was going to die soon. Its sensors, carefully monitoring his opponent's heartbeat and muscle activity, told him that the echidna was in no shape to fight. Two down. Now the rest of the Freedom Fighters should be easy meat for someone who had expended as little energy as it had dispatching this pair. But it needed to track them down first. Its head made a slow turn once more, sweeping the carnage of the laboratory for any signs of further life. Meanwhile, another part of its brain went over the remaining statistics about the Freedom Fighters. Sonic and Knuckles were both down, which left Sonic's close associates: Miles 'Tails' Prower, Amy Rose, Porker Lewis, possibly even Chaotix if it was looking to….

Its meditations, once again, were savagely interrupted, this time by the flat of a gloved hand hammering into its lower stomach, followed by a scything kick that cut into its jaw. Still reeling from the assault, it re-focussed as sharply as it could and brought its visor to rest on a familiar shape. The bangs and dreadlocks were different, as were the baggy jeans, trainers and cotton shirt, but the shape, build and pigment were just similar enough to match the existing file in its data-banks. Amy Rose relaxed her posture, readied her muscles, and eyes her next victim with a barely concealed fury. Her staring did all the talking, spoke of all her contempt and rage, without her ever raising her voice above a whisper.

"You'll regret that," she hissed, bringing both knees into a bent crouch, "Let's see you in a real fight."


	4. The Dance Of Blood

**The Dance Of Blood**

He had attacked them. And brought them all to the brink of oblivion. Amy could still remember Tails struggling for breath in her arms, his head a network of bruises and cuts. Knuckles was in her sight, his chest awash with blood, ribs cracked, bleeding his life away into the cold floor underneath him. And Sonic…. She couldn't even see him. She needn't though. The monster responsible for hurting all her friends was stood quite plainly in front of her, sensors and systems whirring into action under that dull shell, waiting for her to make a move. Amy could feel the raw rage, the primal urge to fight, to protect and to avenge, coursing into her limbs and muscles, contorting her sweat-lined brow into a grimace of ugly hatred. She fought to keep her calm and set her body into combat stance, knees bent, elbows folded and fists clenched. All of this angry energy would be the power she needed for another round of Ko-Bah. Her madness, harnessed and controlled, would fuel the Dance of Blood.

"Your move."

Silver had been waiting. One enormous fist buzzed through the air close to Amy's head, which she dodged with a dip of the shoulder. A follow-up forward roll took her underneath a second sweeping punch, and allowed her to deliver a slashing kick to the machine's calves. It rocked, but otherwise stood still as Amy, carried by her own momentum, righted herself and sent a roundhouse kick carving into Silver's skull. That was enough, at last, to give the titan some semblance of pain. Its right knee buckled under the weight of the blow, its balance servos gave an angry squawk, then finally howled in rage as Amy's other foot connected with the base of its neck, finally sending it off balance and spinning heavily into the dust. Amy allowed herself a moment to relax, cooling the venom that was rising through her body. She couldn't afford to tire too easily against something like this. That much became clear as Silver struggled patiently back to its feet, and stiffened both arms, ready to launch another onslaught.

The robot moved with a speed that even surprised Amy, sending one extendable arm rocketing out from the socket of its wrist and whistling over her shoulder. Behind her, she heard Porker's precious computer terminals and lab equipment break and shatter under the machine's punch. She needed to stay on her toes, or her bones would be doing the same thing. She lunged forward with another scissor-kick that Silver caught on the upper part of his arm, his reflexes kicking into a higher gear than she had expected. The duel blasted swiftly into a stalemate, with Amy having to put in just as much work dodging Silver's own blows as delivering them. And even when he didn't block them, he took a pounding well. His metallic shell withstood her assaults better than Sonic's organic tissue could. Silver swatted another strike aside and threw his fist at Amy's shoulder, finally burying a blow that sent her staggering backwards, her upper arm already numbing, into a nearby table. This fight mustn't get on top of her….

From somewhere amidst the carnage, a gloved pair of hands claws past the wreckage around them, bleary eyes adjusting to take in the hazy, tumbled vision of destruction around them. He can feel his energy drained to the point of non-existence. He can smell the nostril-burning odour of flaming metal and frying wires, mingling with a soft hint of flesh. To one side, a broken and bleeding heap signals the presence of Knuckles, fading into unconsciousness, one hand still clasped over a freshly-torn wound on his chest. And in front of him….

Another driving fist to the face still didn't seem to be fazing Silver. He staggered briefly, then shook his sensors angrily back into form and retaliated with a sweeping blow that Amy ducked clumsily. Trying to make a dent in this giant's armour was tiring her, but she had yet to pull out her best tricks. More kicks bounced against Silver's toughened hide, more strikes smashed against his head and chest. Amy could feel the sweat beading over her eyes, her anger rising, the poisonous glare in her face growing brighter as she pounded her rival. How dare he, how dare he…

These were the thoughts that informed her, moments later, that she had made a mistake. Silver blocked a sloppy elbow strike, then wound both enormous hands around her collar, the cold steel crushingly strong against Amy's shoulders. Then, in a move that even she hadn't expected from the robot, Silver brought his enormous skull forward in a sharp thrust, his forehead catching Amy in a blistering shockwave across her face. The suddenness, the roughness of the strike was enough by itself, along with its almighty force, to put Amy out of action. Her muscles relaxed, her body went limp, her head, bleeding from the nose, lolled uselessly in Silver's hands. Her vital signs flared for a moment on Silver's readouts, and then dulled into inactivity. Far from fatal, but enough to put her out of the fight. Three down.

Seconds later, an attempted revision at two down failed miserably as a furious ball of spinning azure adrenalin cannoned into his sculpted face. The force of a head on, anger-charged Super Spin Attack was enough to catch Silver by the neck and hoist him off his feet, plunging like an anvil through the sheet of window glass behind him and plummeting over the drop. Amid the showering fragments of glass, Sonic landed at a crouch, re-composing himself, his bruised face twisted into a savage snarl. The fighter in him had finally surged back to then surface. If anything, getting briefly knocked out had been nothing more than a good opportunity to lie down. He spun nimbly on the spot to see Amy, staring dazedly through a fresh curtain of blood streaming down her face, and helped her to her knees. She swayed slightly under his grip, and focussed her eyes on him.

"Sss… Sonic… ooh…"

"Ease up Amy. I'll take care of Silver, that Spin Attack won't have been enough to floor him just yet. You see to Knuckles and Tails, I think that creep knocked the stuffing out of them in a big way. I'll be done in two seconds, just leave it to me…."

Sonic was at the window the following instant, scoping into the Emerald Hill Zone spread out underneath him for signs of his enemy. Amy struggled to her knees, still mopping blood from her muzzle, and tried to cough out a protest. However, she was jolted mid-sentence by a shrill yell from the other side of the room. Tails was bent over Knuckles' body, an open first-aid kit spilling its contents onto the floor beside him, anti-burn pads in both his hands.

"Amy, come quick! He's in bad shape, we need to get him into recovery."

Amy could only nod before stumbling dazedly towards her new task. She would have to deal with Sonic and Silver once her double-vision subsided.

Silver had picked himself to his feet quicker than Sonic had anticipated. Hauling his gigantic body into an upright position amid the stunned, horrified gazes of the zone's residents. Mothers clutched small children to their chests, grown men quaked from the soles of their feet, as Silver clunked unsteadily back into a standing posture, shaking its massive shoulder free of debris and sprinkling the grass around it with broken glass. Mobius wilted under the machine's calculating, indomitable emerald stare. It wasn't down yet, and as long as there was power running to its massive engines, it was going to keep up its mission. Which meant that whoever had knocked it out of the window must be the next one to die. Silver's tender sensors picked out the buzz of tearing air, the rush of gathering wind somewhere overhead, and consciously inclined its neck.

Looming nearly 20 feet overhead, gaining height from a spectacular launch out of the shattered window frame, Sonic was now visible only as a shrieking ball of blue quills and rage, gathering momentum as it plunged through the yielding air. A Super Spin Attack, aimed specifically to cleave like a thunderbolt through Silver's skull, bring it down at last in one almighty swoop. A blaze of energy, a response to Silver's own alarmed signal, rushed from one shoulder, spread like molten iron down an upper arm, down to fingertips…. In a heartbeat, Silver's palm was raised over its head, turned to a sky that was now filled with the screaming blue fury of Sonic as he writhed, halted in his tracks and still spinning, against the robot's impossible block. Sparks showered from the point of impact as Sonic drove relentlessly against the unbreaking surface, willing Silver's arm to give, for him to plummet onwards towards that exposed face and smash through it….

The last thing Sonic realized was that the surface of Silver's hand was getting unusually hot. Then, without warning, his vision, his whole body, was engulfed. Dirty golden fire roared out from the energy blasters in the creature's hands, flared over Sonic's skin, shot through to his bones, sent waves of burning wind cascading like a dragon's vomit over his body. For the briefest of moments, he tossed like a doll in that agonising blast, buffeted into somersaults by the angry wind. And then the ground was hard, pounding against his back, forcing his limbs into paralysis, his body into shutdown. All he could still do was roll his eyes, fighting off the noiseless advance of awful light, as Silver clunked into view and levelled one open palm at his face, eyes cold as stone, set to finish his mission at last.

Something tiny, something like the sting of a phantom bee, exploded somewhere in the piles upon piles of data and memory files that made up the inside of Silver's head. Like a smouldering trail of gunpowder leading to a barrel of dynamite, randomized images, freshly triggered, recently implanted, flashed across its vision. New, non-existent, hitherto unexplored memories, memories that shouldn't even be in its head….

The reality before him wavered briefly. There was Sonic, teetering on unconsciousness, nursing burns, fighting for breath, one second. And the next, there was Sonic, again. Or Silver itself. The creature was a hybrid, some way between the two. It was metallic, it shared the cold, furious glare of Silver's eyes, the calculated malevolence of his tread. But it had Sonic's physique, his sleek build, his elegantly sculpted, streamlined body that looked like it had been built from the ground up to provide speed. The two beings flashed in and out of sight, with Silver stuck, its mind straining to keep track, somewhere in the middle. This other monster, this other metal creature created in its shape, intrigued it, as much as one can be intrigued with no obvious emotions. What exactly was it seeing here?

Sonic allowed one bleary eye to focus on his scene, desperately trying to asses his situation. Silver had halted where it stood, arm still frozen in front of its body, palm open and ready to fire, but its shining eyes were growing somehow duller, as if preoccupied with some other task. Perhaps some minor mechanical failure, a cut wire or a broken motor, had stalled the giant for the time being. His limbs felt numb, his body crashed, unable to drive enough energy from his muscles to even incline his head. But if he could only recover, if he could only will his own incredible stamina back into action, he might still be able to turn this fight….

Blasphemous, enraging names, specifications, crawled up out of the dark residue festering at the floor of Silver's constructed mind. New thoughts, new links, new commands and new information, fresh and yet somehow familiar, as if shaken back to life by some guiding hand. Now new words were joining that flashing picture before it. Specifications flashed past of steel plating, specially lightened for aerodynamic purpose and weight reduction, a compact thermal energy motor that also drove a 500 degree Celsius adjustable laser cannon and gave nearly enough thrust from the rear-mounted turbine engine to accelerate to nearly 200mph in under a second from a standing start, and on to a top speed of nearly 750mph. And a name for it all, the jewel in this usurping upstart's crown… Silver idly clenched one remaining fist as a new purpose, born from out of the caverns of his repaired thoughts, engulfed it. Engulfed **him**.

No other must be allowed to intrude, to foul this blessedly murderous purpose. This new being, this other demon that had stolen Silver's glory, must pay. Must be destroyed.

Even Sonic had not expected Silver to run. But run it apparently did. Or at least, through his one useable eye, Silver appeared to curl readily into that savage, spike-coated wheel formation that he vaguely remembered from the Death Egg, and then tear off through the rows of suburban houses and into the distance, flinging a wake of dust and mud onto Sonic's prone body as it surged onwards. Sonic lay where the beast had left him, broken, winded, staring through one eye at the blinding blue sky all around him and wondering how long it would be before he could move again. A while, if the ache in his legs was anything to go by. As the grass brushed against the underside of his head, he turned to follow the sound of anxious, inching footsteps. A pair of unlaced trainers inched into view, and the hem of a scuffed and torn trouser leg.

"Think you can move Sonic?"

Even as he tried, all Sonic seemed able to move, with considerable effort, was his left arm. And even then, it was only to feel the growing, painful bruise growing up over one tightly clenched eye. He forced out a groan that Amy correctly took to be a 'no.'

"Well, I can carry you as far as the medical bay anyway. Tails and Porker should be able to look after you there. Then when you're on your feet," she added, hoisting Sonic bodily into her chest, "then we'd better start looking for that oversized coke can, and fast. I have a feeling that he's suddenly got more on his agenda than Tails bargained for…"


End file.
